Machine for trimming books and paper



FFICE.

GABRIEL UTLEY, OF CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA.

MACHINE FOR TRIIVIIVIING BOOKS AND PAPER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 29,532, dated August 7, '1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GABRIEL UTLEY, of

' Chapel Hill, in the county of Orange and State of North Carolina, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Machines for Trimming Paper or Books; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and eXact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents a perspective view. Fig. 2, a bottom View, and Fig. 3, a vertical central section of the machine.

Similar letters of reference in each of the several figures indicate corresponding parts.

The nature of my invention consists, lst, in three reciprocating knives and a threearmed slotted lever, in combination with a follower', for the purpose of trimming paper; 2nd, in the manner substantially'as hereinafter described of operating the knives by means of a single pivoted lever.

To enable others, skilled in the art, to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The follower consists of two brackets P, and N, each with a plate at its forward end (M, and L, respectively) and a dovetail tongue (Q, and R,) at its rear end, the tongues'being confined, but free to slide up and down, in a vertical groove S, in the frame of the machine. The pile of paper to be trimmed is placed between the two plates IWI, L7 and held tight between them by two clamp screws T, U, working through the brackets. The paper thus held is allowed gradually to descend together with the brackets (the tongues and groove serving as a guide during such movement) so as to expose the vthree edges of the paper (which are to be trimmed) to the simultaneous action of the three reciprocating vertical knives A, B, O. These three knives are arranged outside of the front and side edges of the plates M, L, and are secured to sliding frames D, E, F, respectively. These sliding frames have short rails D, E, F, projecting downward and secured to the frames by screws c', le, z'. The rails slide in slots D, E, F, in a table composed of three separate leaves H, I, G. These table leaves are secured to the main frame by screws H, I, passing thro-ugh slots I-I, I', in the table leaves and screwed into the main frame, so that the table leaves, and together with them the knife frame and knives, can be set at any suitable distance from the front and side edges of the plates M, L, so as to trim the paper to any required size.

The reciprocating motion of the knives is produced in the following manner. A threearmed lever J, II, is pivoted to the center of the bottom partof the main frame at O. The three arms are cach provided with a slot J K, J embracing the under end of the knife frame screws z', 7c, z', respectively. As the handle J, of the lever projecting from the side of the machine is worked back and forth, the slots J ,KQ J operate upon the screws i, 7c, i, so as to impart the necessary reciprocating motion t0 each of the knives,

the rails and slots in the table leaves serving as guides. This is a very simple and highly effective machine which admits also of all the adjustments necessary to trim paper to any required size, or different sized paper and, books.

lVhat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. Three reciprocating knives A, B, C, and a three armed slotted lever J, K, in combination with a follower M, P, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. Operating the knives substantially as herein described.

GABRIEL UTLEY. Witnesses:

G. F. G. DIETERICH,

Jol-IN S. HOLLINGSHEAD. 

